Sunshine Coast Birds

Birding and other wildlife experiences from the Sunshine Coast and elsewhere in Australia - and from overseas - with scribblings about travel, environmental issues, kayaking, hiking and camping.

Saturday, 25 March 2017

Cash for Night Parrot

Night Parrot. Pic by John Young

The full version of a story published in the 25-26/03/2017 edition of The Weekend Australian:

Cashed
up nature lovers will pay $25,000 a head to join luxury “glamping”
trips to outback Queensland in the hope of a glimpse of the world's
most mysterious bird.

Revelation
of the plan has angered bird enthusiasts who face a two-year jail
sentence or
$353,400 fine if they enter the same area planned for what is
emerging as a noveland potentially
lucrative ecotourism
venture.

The
row erupted as news emerged this week of two newly discovered
populations of the critically endangered night parrot 2000km apart.

The
naturalist John Young generated international headlines when he
photographed a night parrot in the Pullen Pullen Reserve, south-west
of Winton, in 2013. It was the first time the enigmatic bird had been
photographed, and the first confirmed record of a live night parrot
since the 1880s.

The
56,000ha reserve was excised from the sprawling Brighton Downs cattle
property when it was acquired by Bush Heritage Australia early last
year.

John Young in the field

The Weekend
Australian was
criticised by the expert
Night Parrot
Recovery Team for revealing the whereabouts of the secret site last
May. Critics argued that the parrots
would be threatened
by disruptive visits from an
invasion ofbirding
“twitchers” eager to spy a night parrot.

The
Queensland Government took the unprecedented step of issuing a
conservation order banning unauthorised entry to the private reserve,
with hefty penalties for transgressions.

At
the time, Environment Minister Steven Miles lumpedtwitcherstogether with
egg-collectors as a
“great threat” to the species, adding: “Before the area could
be opened to bird-watchers, we must have more information about night
parrots and take care of their conservation requirements.”

However,
very few birding
trips have been made
to the remote area. Meanwhile, Bush
Heritage has struggled with a $1.5 million mortgage it was forced to
take out to fund the Pullen Pullen acquisition.

Wealthy
birdershave been emailed
by intermediariesto determine their
interest in paying $25,000 a
head to join a
camping trip to Pullen Pullen with the chance of seeing a night
parrot, regarded by the Smithsonian Institution as the most
mysterious bird in the world.

Participants
could look forward to a glamour camping or
“glamping”
experience among
the rugged, spinifex-clad slopes of Pullen Pullen near the reserve's
southern boundary with Diamantina National Park. The first of the
six-person trips is scheduled to take place in July.

The
fee includes $5,000 for a permit and costs, with $20,000 donated to
Bush Heritage to fund its night parrot program.

Night Parrot habitat at Pullen Pullen

Participants
are told the visits are
backed by the
15-member Night Parrot Recovery Team and BirdLife International, a
peak overseas birding body.

Recovery
team chairman Allan Burbidge, a WA Department of Parks and Wildlife
scientist, said the team had
not backed any such plan.

Alice
Springs ornithologist and birding guide Mark Carter said the site
being used as a private resource for tour operations raised questions
about whether the Queensland Government's special protection measures
were an abuse of process.

“Any
such tour would
prove that birders are not an existential threat to the bird as was
claimed,” Mr Carter said.

“Australian
birders are owed an apology for the way they've been treated
throughout this whole affair.”

Australia's
leading authority on parrots, Joseph Forshaw, said he was mystified
by the preoccupation with alleged threats to the night parrot from
bird lovers.

“Authorities
need to be vigilant against feral cats, foxes and wildfire rather
than bird-watchers,” Dr Forshaw said.

Bush
Heritage Australia chief executive Gerard O'Neill denied that glamour
camping was on offer but conceded that donors would be visiting
Pullen Pullen.

“Across
Australia, Bush Heritage works with individual philanthropists who
are prepared to commit to significant and long-term support of our
conservation reserves and programs,” Mr O'Neill said.

“Any
trips to Pullen Pullen Reserve for donors, who have helped us to
establish the reserve and continue to support our efforts to protect
the night parrot, will be planned carefully in consultation with
leading ornithologists and conservation biologists to minimise
disturbance to birds.”

Environment
Minister Steven Miles said no approvals had been sought for
commercially-based visits to the reserve.

“Any
unauthorised activities conducted on the property resulting in
disturbance to the birds may be a breach of the Nature
Conservation Act and
therefore any ecotourism activity proposals for this area, commercial
or otherwise, would be highly scrutinised,” Dr Miles said.

Dr
Miles revealed this
week that John Young
had discovered a new population of night parrots at Goneaway National
Park, 50km east of Pullen Pullen, bringing to at least 10 the number
of sites now known for the species across a 350km arc of arid country
in Queensland's channel country.

At
the same time, a group of birders photographed a night parrot and
several others were heard east of Broome in Western Australia.

Bird-watching
is emerging as one of the world's most popular hobbies. Surveys in
North America and Europe reveal about 20 per cent of people report
regular, positive
interactions with
wild birds; bird-watching is overtaking gardening and fishing as the
most popular past-time in some western
countries.

BirdLife
Australia has more than 10,000 members and 50,000 supporters; many
are
cashed up and prepared to pay handsomely
for the opportunity to see rare species.
Thousands more
Australians belong to smaller groups or pursue their hobby privately.

FURTHER COMMENT:

It is perfectly legitimate for Bush Heritage Australia to raise funds for its Pullen Pullen program. BHA insists it is repaying the charity of donors by hosting visits; it's a thin line between that and a commercially based ecotourism venture.

No argument either way. The problem lies with the fact that anyone not in the BHA tent faces a $353,000 fine or 2 years in jail courtesy of a Queensland Government interim conservation order over the reserve. BHA, the Night Parrot Recovery Team, the state government and even BirdLife Australia have all been singing from the same song sheet. They regard the birding community as a menace. Birders are described as "vigilantes". They have been lumped in with egg collectors as a major threat to the Night Parrot.

Yet the opposite is true. The prospects of the Night Parrot surviving are hugely enhanced by excursions by birders over the vast expanse of the bird's former range. The recent discovery of the Night Parrot in the Western Australian Pilbara is testimony to that. Yet in Queensland, more than 250,000 ha of existing and potential Night Parrot habitat - the whole of Pullen Pullen and the eastern half of Diamantina National Park, covering an area many times greater than known sites - have been declared off-limits to birders. The government is signalling yet more areas will be out of bounds following last week's discovery of the parrot in Goneaway National Park. It's overkill, it's not necessary, and it's counterproductive.

For more than three years the recovery team and BHA refused to release playback of the parrot's call to help facilitate further searches. They did so only recently, and I suspect reluctantly. That is a travesty. While they sat on the calls, great tracts of potential Night Parrot habitat were subjected to mineral exploration and other potentially harmful activities.

BHA needs the birding community on side for fund-raising, but its handling of the matter is doing the organisation no favours.